I love being Catholic!Tonight's Mass of the Lord's Supper marks the beginning of the most holy time in the liturgical year, the Easter Triduum.
Five years ago I participated in my first Easter Triduum - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and finally, the Easter Vigil Mass where I received my first Holy Eucharist and entered into full communion with the Catholic Church.
At the Mass of the Lord's Supper, Jesus' institution of the Eucharist (in other words, the first Mass) is celebrated. Traditionally, this Mass includes a foot washing ceremony, which is symbolic of Christ's institution of the priesthood. After Mass, the altar is stripped of cloths, and the Blessed Sacrament is taken out of the tabernacle in preparation for Good Friday, the only day when there is no Mass said anywhere in the world.
I can almost smell the incense and sense the presence of Christ now; I am thinking of His passing me as He was taken to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel from the tabernacle this evening.
There is an unbroken line of connection that exists between the Church today and Christ in the upper room that is amazing; but when we consider that the unbroken line goes back to the time of the Jews, it compounds the amazement. This evening's first reading was that of the Jews' Exodus from Egypt; our Paschal Feast is a continuance of their Passover.
The Easter Triduum is a heady experience for me. I now head straight to the events of Good Friday tomorrow, and then on Saturday I will share in the joy of Easter Vigil, when fifteen people from our parish will become part of the unbroken line of Christendom.
Oh, how I love being Catholic!
2 comments:
what i love about being a catholic is the humor one can find even in the seriousness of easter .
i have a military memorial rose garden in my back yard with a garden cross .
when the roses are n full bloom they adorn and surround the garden cross in a most wonderful way but i also have a water fountain below with a little rabbit ( easter bunny ) statue in the fountain where it appears he's laughing his little ole bunny heart out while sitting in the water fountain .... some would say he's having a bunny pee in the fountain......... the laughing bunny i believe is saying to us all.........'' he is risen , he is alive and i'm just so darn happy about it that i can't stop smiling and laughing at the enemy because jesus has washed all my sins away and now i'm free ....... free even to forget myself while i'm laughing and accidently have a pee pee in the fountain....
YES........ i find this very funny but at easter time but nothing as funny when on holy thursday mass the choir accidently sang a song out of rythum which caused much confusion . I was cracking up in the pew as i saw the priest laughing also and when he saw me covering my mouth so as to hide my smile thats when he cracked up laughing as well....
AND THIS IS WHY I LOVE BEING A CATHOLIC.......it's just so much fun i could die laughing.....
Don't die laughing... Please. (Well, maybe it would be a good way to go. :)
I love to laugh! It's so much fun, and so good for us.
Have you read the Narnia series? In the seventh book, The Magician's Nephew, there is a wonderful part about laughter at the dawn of time.
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